The End has COME...

The End has COME...in cooking class that is. (Feel free to cry with me here)

But as all things Italian are...the last day of class went out with a BANG!

I don't know if my mouth has ever been that happy :)

Libby grilling pumpkin

Cutting out the noodles

Ferdinando taught us all kinds of tricks when it comes to making pasta. This would be called the "grab and fling" (shaking out the noodles after cutting them into strips)

 Everything I put in my mouth was pure joy (even more so than usual). Hard to believe I know! But its the truth!

Focaccia bread with tomatoes and olives

This meal was the day of mushrooms. I'm usually not a huge "fungi" fan but this day definitely change my view on them! We used three kinds of mushrooms for the pasta sauce. I'm not sure what kind they were...regular looking ones, dried ones (too rare to buy fresh), and giant straight-from-the-forest-looking ones. We sauteed them in olive oil and parsley, then added tomato sauce.We made the noodles from scratch again and topped it all off with some Parmesan cheese of course!

Pasta with a Mushroom-Tomato Sauce

For the main course we sauteed chunks of pork tenderloin in a little bit of oil, then wrapped them in focaccia dough that was rolled out like pasta. We placed the pork in a little pillow of dough and pinched it close to bake in the oven. We served it with a mushroom cream sauce and grilled pumpkin.

Pork Tenderloin sauted then baked in a bread crust, drizzled with a mushroom cream sauce. Served with grilled pumpkins

And now for the dessert. I'm not even sure how to begin describing this. We made a whipped cream/mousse kind of filling with chestnut marmalade and added little chocolate chips to it. Then we blended a fruit called cachi, which is a kind of persimmon (and kind of looks like an orange rotten tomato btw) It is a very vivid orange color but has a subtle sweet flavor that is much more slight than you would think. It was the perfect balance to the sweet cream!

We served it similar to how we made tirimisu. You layer the fruit, cream, then biscotti cookies soaked in fresh-squeezed orange juice, then repeat! we topped it with almond/molasses biscotti.

and can I just say YUM?!

Pure sweet heaven for the taste buds

It has been a wonderful and adventurous semester with Chef Ferdinando! I have conquered the science of Italian Cooking and the art of Italian eating. Including conquering my fears of fish, mussles, clams, mushrooms, tomatoes, and octopi! (ok the fear of fishy things with tentacles hasn't QUITE been defeated...but hey I went up against them at least!)

I would say it's been a great success indeed!

Chef Ferdinando

Stand by to witness the fruits of my success when I bring my cooking skills home in a few weeks! Cross your fingers that they will be as successful...or at least eventually get there through trial and error! (sorry family...you are about to become the guinea pigs of Italian Chef Jenessa Rose)
Buon Appetito!!

Buon Appetito #7 & #8

 Yay for more FOOD!!!!

Cooking Class Week 7

Another day of Fish (oh boy....)

yes those are little octopuses (octopi?) either way...ew.

as you can see...i was not too thrilled!

 Despite the squirmishness however, it ended up being a very good meal!

Our appetizer was a quiche type thing made of carrots, eggs, milk and drizzled with pesto.

Appetizer

 First Course: Risotto with "Fruit of the Sea" (aka. clams, mussles, and OCTOPUS)

 So the rice was very good! I could even handle the clams and mussles!! The octopus however...not so much. Hey at least I tried them! It's just too hard getting past the squirmy texture...

 Main Course: Salmon served with Roasted Potatoes and Veggies

Yes I ate Salmon!

See I even took a picture to prove it!

And look at my clean plate!!! Mom and Dad will be so proud!

 Dessert was a lovely Fruit Salad

So fresh!

 And we also begged Chef Ferdinando to teach us how to make canoli's. He was a gem and agreed!

Stuffing the Canoli's

YUM

Here comes Week 8!

Sharissa doing her thang! (smashing the potatoes for gnocchi)

Little gnocchi's...aren't they cute?!

Katie-Anne chopping away!

Ribollitta (soup that is boiled twice)

First course: Ribollitta

Gnocchi with pesto!!!! (a favorite by far!)

Chef Ferdinando's favorite cookies

Buon Appetitio #5 and #6

Hey its your MIA student/italianwannabe/chef! i've decided that my posts are getting boring...so let commence operation re-jazzify my blog!!! meanwhile...here's what we made in cooking class the last two weeks!

 

This is Mr. Eggplant.We had a special moment.

Sharissa and I chopped ALL of these veggies...it was harder than you would think! or we are just special...no comment.

Stuffed shells. YUM

getting our hands nice and dirty in raw meat, flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs!

Sharissa: queen of the pot

Palenta with Pecorino cheese

Bucattini l'amatriciana (i may have slaughtered that spelling)

Fried Veal Cutlets with Lemon served with sauted potatoes, onions and olives

Biscotti and cholcolate!

Drooling encouraged.

 Buon Appetito!

Buon Appetito #4

Cooking Class Week 4!

So each week I go into cooking class thinking "ok can we out do last week's meal?"

And yes...we always do!

This week was a vegetarian meal...but believe me...it had plenty of substance to it!

Yep..that is pure chocolate you're looking at there. How it survived the whole period with 20 starving girls? I have no idea.

The sauted veggies that went inside our crepes

Stuffed tomatoes before baking

making crepes!!

Eggplant parmesean, an Italian speciality. Eggplant with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil layered and baked all together.

Appetizer: Stuffed Tomatoes (with ricotta, basil, olives, capers, and breadcrumbs)

Veggie Crepes with a tomato cream sauce

Dessert: Chocolate Molten Cake with Orange glaze

It was another delicious day in the kitchen!

Buon Appetito!

Buon Appetito #3

Ok so when you think Italy, one of the first things that comes to mind is PIZZA right?

Well yesterday in cooking class...we made the real thing. YUM.

This week's menu:

Appetizer: Catherine Salad (recipe from Caterina de Medici apparently)

Main Course: PIZZA of varying kinds

Grilled Vegetables

Dessert: Tiramisu

The salad was so fresh. It consisted of mixed lettuce, arugula, tomatoes, toasted bread cubes, and pecorino cheese. We dressed it with a simple mixture of olive oil (duh), white vinegar, and salt.

We then commenced the making of the pizzas!

The dough is a simple recipe similar to the focaccia bread we made a few weeks ago. This we roll flatter however and then poke it with a spiky roller to prevent it from puffing up. We put the sauces and toppings (except the cheese) on the top before baking it in the oven so the sauce cooked in with the dough.

We made 4 kinds: marinara and mozzerella, marinara-mozzerella-prosciutto, potato with rosemary, and get this...pumpkin!

grilled zucchini, eggplant, and mushrooms with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and mint

They were all SO DELICIOUS!! The pumpkin was my favorite! Some girls from our group tried a pumpkin pizza in Rome and loved it, so we told our chef about it and he attempted to recreate it. I would count it as a success! 

Then of course to top it all off: Tiramisu!

Yes it may just look like a pile of mush, but it was the greatest tasting pile of mush that I have EVER put into my mouth!! So good in fact, that it was necessary, yes necessary, to lick the plate clean :)

 Tips of the Week:
1. Bake the Pizza with the sauce
2. Instead of using coffee in the Tiramisu, we used Orzo, a non-caffeinated coffee substitute with a very similar flavor

Buon Appetito!